Lab safety, security show improving trends
By Tatjana K. RosevSeptember 3, 2008
Safety and security at the Laboratory is showing continued improvement. A recent report confirmed that both safety and security showed positive tendencies in the time period from July 2007 to July 2008.
With worker injury performance measured in total recordable cases (TRCs) and days away, restricted or transferred (DART), the TRC rate went down by 35 percent and the DART rate decreased by 34 percent during the same time period.
According to the report, which was presented at an all-manager’s meeting on August 18, the number of severe security incidents also went down. While four IMI-2 incidents were reported during fiscal year 2007, only one IMI-1 and one IMI-2 incident was reported over the past 12 months. The number of incidents reportable to the Department of Energy also decreased in the time period from August 2006 to July 2008.
Dick Watkins, associate director for Environment, Safety, Health & Quality (ADESHQ), complimented Laboratory employees for the improving safety performance. “These measurable successes are a credit to each and every one of you. Your attention to safety and security while accomplishing your mission is laudable and key to success today and in the future,” he said.
I smell a big, fat 20% bonus coming home to Daddy! The rest of you can make due with a minuscule 2% raise.
ReplyDelete- Mr. Mikey
Sure, sit in your office, surf
ReplyDeletethe web, and don't do any fabrication
or experimental work and the TRCs and
DARTs will really diminish.
We are indeed a WORK-FREE, SAFE and SECURE PLACE!
My guess in the decrease is fear in reporting. Workers Comp rates are based on claims. Less claims yields less money paid to the insurance company yields more profit yields more money lining the pockects of ULM in the form of bonuses. I'd bet money that decreasing the accident rate is a performance indicator.
ReplyDeleteLies, Damned Lies and Statistics.
ReplyDeleteNo workee, no tickee.
ReplyDeleteThe lab is firing drug users left and right. I wonder if there is a link??
ReplyDeleteThe lab is firing drug users left and right. I wonder if there is a link??
ReplyDeleteNo, drug users usually just post psychedelic messages on this blog .
Neko wrote "My guess in the decrease is fear in reporting." I saw that yesterday when a worker injured his foot. He left work "sick" to go to his own doctor. The worker was afraid of repercussions of reporting it to LANS.
ReplyDeleteI am NOT a drug user.
ReplyDeleteI am self-medicating!
Are workers offered help for their addictions?
ReplyDeleteOf course, they are shown where the door is. Usually with a nice escort.
ReplyDelete2% raise? Dream on! Most of the people were restructured so their current salary is well above the 'market salary'. Really think you're going to get a raise if you're not top management? Best you can hope for is a nice rif with severance. Then worry about the mythical tcp1 pension. Was LANS really as dumb as rumored in investing those funds?
ReplyDeleteI'm not convinced there is a tie between reduced DART/TRC scores and mandatory drug testing. I've seen two employees fired from my organization for positive drug tests and both had impeccable safety records on the job. Small number statistics, I know, but the guys who are getting caught as drug users just aren't the ones I might have expected.
ReplyDeleteOne change that might have an impact is the Exhibit F paperwork that goes with any on-site contractor work. The Lab is screening out any subcontract companies with high (historic) injury rates at the procurement stage. Their on-site work hours are then getting rolled into the LANL total.
An interesting experiment would be to look at the changes in the injury types over the past two years. Under UC, the Lab was pretty eager to assign any neck or wrist ache as an occupational injury (RSI), and it's been said that this was abused pretty routinely by the Otowi building types. Have these types of injuries magically gone away?
Are we seeing reductions in the "just beyond first aid" injuries such as lacerations that require stitches? (Maybe we are discovering band-aids, which count as First-Aid Cases instead of TRC's?) Maybe instead of giving prescription-strength Motrin every time an employee says "ouch" (automatic TRC) the doc's are telling them to tough it out and take an OTC at home if it still hurts later.
I dunno. All I know for sure is that Tim McEvoy always ends his manager's meeting presentation on the latest statistics by saying "Please keep doing whatever it is you're doing." Senior management seems to think that the rates are coming down simply because they asked us to bring them down - as if nobody ever thought of doing that before?
Speaking of self-medicating, why are they only focusing on drugs. Is the lab going to test or even spy on suspected heavy drinkers?
ReplyDelete"The lab is firing drug users left and right. I wonder if there is a link??"
ReplyDelete"I've seen two employees fired from my organization for positive drug tests and both had impeccable safety records on the job."
***
The large number of people being fired during drug testing at LANL is disconcerting. Many of these are smart people who know that the testing is being done.
This begs the question -- could these tests be generating a significant number of "false positives"? I suspect they might be doing just that.
Be careful what you ingest, be it illegal or legal. LANS is not giving much of a second chance if these tests raise a red flag.
For example, suppose you have a 3 year old leftover prescription of Vicodin sitting on your bathroom self. You pull a back muscle working in the yard over the weekend and decide to take one pill to ease the terrible pain. Then, on Monday morning, you go into work and suddenly get called in for drug testing. Guess what? You may have created a condition for your immediate dismissal!
In addition to this, many legal substances sold by vitamin shops have yet to be fully investigated in this regards and may cause "false positives" during drug tests.
Watch out! LANS has shown that it is overly eager to layoff as many employees as possible using this testing and they don't give you much of a second chance to clear your good name. I know of no other agency within the federal government that is testing their employees at such highly repeated rates. Maybe after a AD or PAD suddenly gets flag, LANS will then begin to wonder about the validity of their plan of constant, high rate testing of all employees.
Real or perceived, LANL has certainly become a very hostile environment.
ReplyDeleteNext target will be suspected drinkers ... beware.
ReplyDelete3:11 PM - you are correct and you can place the blame on the ADs and PADs. People below them just do as they are told ... or use the senior folks as models on how to behave. thank you Sir, may I have another?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the testing rate?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the testing rate? ( 8:18 PM )
ReplyDeleteI know of people who have been called in more than 4 times for testing during this last year. The testing is done from a random pool of employees with statistical replacement, so there is no limit to how many times a single person could be called in to deliver a sample. Given the many Piss Buses parked around the lab, I would guess the daily test rate must be running at least 30 employees per day, maybe higher.
LANL has become a very hostile place to work. Common sense has flown completely out the window since LANS showed up at LANL's door. I'm not against a sane implementation of drug testing (i.e., they way it is done at some other critical federal work places), but the crazy way it's been implemented at LANL tells you most of what you need to know about the way LANS values employees. We are like a bunch of disposable Dixie Cups to these guys.
"We are like a bunch of disposable Dixie Cups to these guys."
ReplyDeleteActually, it would be fairer to say that you are viewed as the water cooler from which the dixie cup is filled.
9/6 7:32 am: "2% raise? Dream on!"
ReplyDeleteWell, I got a 2% raise this year and I accomplished absolutely nothing. Plus, I didn't even have to have a supervisor meeting! Of course, that was my UC pension annual COLA. Sure glad I bailed.
There is real strangeness in the randomness of the drug testing.
ReplyDeleteThere are people I know who have clearances and sigmas in excess of Q-Sigma 14 and 20 who have never been called for a drug test. Not once.
I've been called several times in the last 18 months. I've passed each time.
I must be in a special, smaller pool from which I am randomly chosen more frequently--perhaps in the same pool with the person mentioned who has been tested 4 times in 1 year.
I have heard of the drug testing office being used by some managers who have friends there to harass employees by calling them for 'random' tests at inflexible times at which the employee already had an appointment with ombuds, legal or complaint resolution.
When will a reasonable measure be applied? A better measure is the number of injuries per actual work performed. As the latter approaches zero, the measure goes to infinity. Good job LANS. You guys (and gals) are geniuses.
ReplyDelete"I have heard of the drug testing office being used by some managers who have friends there to harass employees by calling them for 'random' tests at inflexible times at which the employee already had an appointment with ombuds, legal or complaint resolution." - 9/7/08 9:47 AM
ReplyDeleteAs said by many and demonstrated by the above, LANS has turned LANL into a very hostile place to work and nurture a scientific career!!!
9/7/08 1:06 PM
ReplyDeleteAs said by many and demonstrated by the above, LANS has turned LANL into a very hostile place to work and nurture a scientific career!!!
Not only has it become a hostile place to work, but the people that came in with the new LANS contract are as cold, insincere, ruthless, and blatantly abusive. Good scientists are leaving and so are other very good personnel. But it has been said many times before...they don't give a damn, because when you leave, they can bring in a new Bechtelite...or maybe it a new Bectel"nite". We can stick around and incur the pain, disappointment, anguish, distrust, etc. Then, when they all decide to leave, because they will someday, they will have destroyed LANL, Los Alamos and northern New Mexico!
Long ago, long before Nanos, my group safety award went to a scientist who had not used his lab for the previous year. Nothing is new except for the departure of Domenici, a man who was vital for a do-nothing lab.
ReplyDeleteAre we back in Kansas yet, Toto?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I prefer the term "Bechtilians."
ReplyDeleteAs in reptilian for those who won't get it it.
I know a guy who got fired for his 1st DWI and he doesn't even have a clearance. Who the hell decided we needed to fire someone for a DWI???
ReplyDeleteDick Watkins, associate director for Environment, Safety, Health & Quality (ADESHQ), complimented Laboratory employees for the improving safety performance. “These measurable successes are a credit to each and every one of you. Your attention to safety and security while accomplishing your mission is laudable and key to success today and in the future,” he said. (News Article)
ReplyDeleteJust in case anyone forgot, Dick Watkins is one of LANL's new BECHTEL managers...
6/23/08 10:38 PM - Blog Post:
--------
Mikey and Van P. and many AD's have insulated themselves from LANS by retaining their former employer. Mikey is an employee of UC, and Van P. and Dick Watkins (AD for ESH&Q)and other Bechtiles are all Bechtel employees. Yes, that's right, they get their paycheck from UC or Bechtel, so their future is not dependent on LANS, the way most employees are.
No wonder the Bechtiles spend so much time conferring with Bechtel managerement back at corporate headquarters- they are just serving their real bosses.
--------
"I know a guy who got fired for his 1st DWI and he doesn't even have a clearance." 9/7/08 6:33 PM
ReplyDeleteLANS is looking for any excuse they can find to fire people who are pre-LANS at LANL. They're a growing number of horror stories making the rounds about this subject.
I say that we tell the ADs et all that either we get across the board 5% raises or we will all injure ourselves and they will lose their bonuses.
ReplyDelete9/7/08 9:18 PM
ReplyDelete"Yes, that's right, they get their paycheck from UC or Bechtel, so their future is not dependent on LANS, the way most employees are."
AND, FURTHERMORE, they also get the same vacation that most former long-term UC employees get on vacation and sick leave (i.e. 24 days and 18 days, respectively)!!!
But don't get injured, because if someone got terminated for a DWI, I'm sure they can come up with a good reason to terminate you for an injury (unless you are a Bectel person).
9/7/08 1:06 PM
ReplyDeleteWhen they leave they will kill LANL, Los Alamos but not northern New Mexico. We nortenios are a lot stronger than the little city on the hill. Sorry.
It doesn't work that way, 3:27 AM. With LANS running the show, you'll likely get fired if you are responsible for any accidents at LANL.
ReplyDeleteYou'll be seeing reductions in salary (with US inflation running around 8%), higher health care premiums and reduced coverage, plus large salary contributions to the TCP1 pension to make up for steep market losses. In addition to this, job security at LANL is going to be very weak.
All of this is coming, but no 5% raises. LANS is sending a pretty consistent message to the employees but some of them are having a hard time understanding it.
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI know a guy who got fired for his 1st DWI and he doesn't even have a clearance."
Please explain the circumstances. Was he driving a gov't vehicle at the time?
Was his license suspended making him unable to perform his job?
Was he a contractor (can be instantly laid off for a myriad of reasons) or a LANS employee?
Sorry, but as much as I despise LANS, I find it difficult to believe the story was as clear-cut as you are making it sound. It just does not pass the test of logic. If every employee, cleared or uncleared, who got a DWI around here was laid off by LANS, there would have been no need for the SSP last winter.
If he was fired I guess we can assume he didn't total the the company vehicle in his driveway this summer and is not the deputy director.
ReplyDeleteGetting back to the story about LANL reducing its injuries. A friend of mine who used to work at Pantex told me that Watkins was making the same claims there, but when they looked into the actual events many of the workers just quit reporting them out of fear of retribution. Many you people at LANL should look at little more closely at Watkins.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the LANL webpage LANL has only one mission, namely,
ReplyDelete"Mission - To develop and apply science and technology to: Ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent; Reduce global threats; and Solve other emerging national security challenges"
There is no "your mission" as Watkins is quoted as saying. Such a statement is indicative of someone who does not consider themselves part of LANL.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete"I have heard of the drug testing office being used by some managers who have friends there to harass employees by calling them for 'random' tests at inflexible times at which the employee already had an appointment with ombuds, legal or complaint resolution." - 9/7/08 9:47 AM
Sorry, but I don't believe this one bit. Julian Atencio, his HRP office, and by extension, the LANL random piss testing, is one of the most professional and stand-up organizations I've dealt with as a manager.
9/8/08 8:49 PM:
ReplyDelete"Sorry, but I don't believe this one bit. Julian Atencio, his HRP office, and by extension, the LANL random piss testing, is one of the most professional and stand-up organizations I've dealt with as a manager."
This is the type of denial from a segment of the LANL workforce that I find very perplexing.
Julian might be a very fine person. However, don't you realize that each manager at LANL has the right to request that "suspicious" employee under their domain be drug tested? Is it beyond your imagination to realize that a few of these managers who are given this power may abuse it and use it against some of their "problem" employees they dislike? There is a long history of this type of thing happening at LANL, believe or not.
11:54 am: "However, don't you realize that each manager at LANL has the right to request that "suspicious" employee under their domain be drug tested? Is it beyond your imagination to realize that a few of these managers who are given this power may abuse it and use it against some of their "problem" employees they dislike?"
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that this scenario, which depends on a false positive result to "work" for the "abusive" manager, is less realistic than many other abusive actions a manager can take to penalize a worker without much chance of getting called on it. Unless, of course, you are complaining that you might get caught actually using drugs when you thought you would skate...
Julian spoke to our group and he talked about how it was more important to protect the innocent worker than catch the guilty. He is a different type of LANL manager. I think his background is in forensics. I don't believe he would test a worker just because the manager wants him to do it. I don't think he plays that game.
ReplyDeleteThe guy is a tool, plain and simple. Just like other managers here, roll in at 10 leave at 3pm. He is an expert at cya just like the rest, do as little as possible and blame the lowbies when the the sh#t hits the fan...can't be his fault, he's managment...fits the mold.
ReplyDelete12:13 am - If you make such claims about someone specific, like Julian, without evidence, it's called slander.
ReplyDeleteHey, what about the posting on Watkins? Don't we desire the truth about him and his methods of getting people not to report their injuries? Many of us outside the laboratory are concerned about these methods.
ReplyDeleteI'm the original poster who stood up for the HRP program and professionalism of the department. I am a LANL manager and no, don't claim to be in denial. Hardly from it.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I would say being part of the HRP program, I'm more in the main stream than most of the lab. Would you believe LANL has a drug problem? When LANL implemented the random drug testing, most of the LANL employees believed that being Q cleared equated to be squeaky clean. Would you also believe the number one drug of choice at LANL (besides alcohol)is cocaine. These are facts, not myths.
"9/10/08 8:22 PM"
ReplyDeleteWhy on earth should we believe a single word you have to say? Sounds like bs.
"I am a LANL manager and no, don't claim to be in denial. Hardly from it. "
ReplyDeleteIncoherent sentences do not make a very convincing argument. Sounds like you're on drugs.
"Would you also believe the number one drug of choice at LANL (besides alcohol)is cocaine"
No, I would not believe that accusation. If you have supporting evidence, then present it.
"Incoherent sentences do not make a very convincing argument." (9:57 AM)
ReplyDeleteYou are obviously forgetting about the low standards for new managers at LANL, 9:57 AM. Anyone who once worked for Bechtel will do as a manger at LANL these days.
"When LANL implemented the random drug testing, most of the LANL employees believed that being Q cleared equated to be squeaky clean."
ReplyDeleteI realize you said most employees, but not the people I was in the betting pool with. Estimates were that 1%-5%+ would test positive for illegal drugs.
Cocaine is clearly a big problem here at the lab. The quicker the HRP Office eliminates these workers, the better off LANL will be. DWI can't be tolerated either. Anyone who disagrees is welcome to leave. I for one am tired of this BS. After 27 years, I'm glad someone is doing something about the problem. I can still remember workers drinking in the parking lot when I began working here. Safety shouldn't even be discussed until you rid the lab of criminal behavior. It's like being worried about dust on your coffee table when you live next to a dirt road.
ReplyDelete"9/10/08 8:22 PM"
ReplyDeleteLooks like you have been smoked out for the the troll that you are.
"9/11/08 10:23 PM"
ReplyDeleteThis is total bs. I have been around LANL for many years and what 10:23 pm is saying is just not true. I think we can all agree that 10.23pm is some random troll who does not even live in New Mexico. Please folks, use common sense anyone from any part of the world can say anything on this blog. By the way 25 percent of the lab are space aliens! It is a very well known fact and not a myth and I
should know because I read it on a blog!!!
ha ha ha ha security at LANL.
ReplyDeleteWait wait wait... I haven't been reading this regularly for a while (after leaving the lab, my desire to follow the train wreck dwindled). But are you *serious* that after a couple years of regular, quite obvious drug testing, they're STILL finding a nontrivial number of users? You would have expected it to have weeded out the users pretty early on since, if I recall, they had a goal of covering the entire population of the lab each year (or was it 2? If so, maybe that's why it's still a big number). Any data as to what segment of the staff contains most of the positives, or is it pretty uniform from low level staff up through TSMs?
ReplyDeleteAny time I need a reminder as to why I left the lab, I just need to pop on here. Definitely a very effective cure for any "I miss LANL" moments.
" By the way 25 percent of the lab are space aliens! It is a very well known fact and not a myth and I
ReplyDeleteshould know because I read it on a blog!!!
9/11/08 10:48 PM"
Hey, that must be true because I read it on the front page of the SF New Mexican almost 20 years ago! Oh wait, they were talking about the high percentage of Santa Feans who think they are from outer space. Well, some things never change. I guess it's fitting then that so many managers choose to live in Santa Fe.
Stick to drinking bottled water if you are taking a piss test:
ReplyDelete* Drugs affect more drinking water *
- By MARTHA MENDOZA, AP National Writer Sep 12, 2008
Testing prompted by an Associated Press story that revealed trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies has shown that more Americans are affected by the problem than previously thought — at least 46 million.
Chicago, for example, found a cholesterol medication and a nicotine derivative. Many cities found the anti-convulsant carbamazepine. Officials in one of those communities, Colorado Springs, say they detected five pharmaceuticals in all, including a tranquilizer and a hormone.
9/12 1:11 am: "Stick to drinking bottled water if you are taking a piss test:"
ReplyDeleteIn case you didn't know, most bottled water comes from the same place your tap water does - a municipal water supply. Only, you don't know which municipality.
http://enr.construction.com/news/othersources/article.asp?SMDOCID=knightridder_2008_09_16__0000-3092-PK-Bechtel-faces-fine-over-worker-s-layoff-0916&SMContentSet=0
ReplyDelete